Don't Tap It

The causes for troubled skin and hair might lie where you least expect them. Offenders are flowing from the faucets.

- Meriam Ahari

It’s hard to win these days. The list is endless when it comes to staying on top of our beauty game – swapping red meat for fish, turning vegan to avoid hormone-laced meats, and stop looking at the breads counter in the supermarket, and squinting our eyes trying to read (between the lines) the cosmetic labels. And yet, we get entangled into the world of misleading promises (read organic, paraben-free, blah, blah). But, the problem may lie somewhere you are not looking.

It may be your water. Before you write meticulous water-less suicide note, we suggest you read further. The water that we use to wash our face may be the cause of your all your skin and hair woes. By hard water, we mean the level of minerals and heavy metals found in tap water.

The ‘hardness’ or ‘softness’ varies depending on where you are, but chances are, if you live in a city, you are exposed to hard water. The harder your water is, the more difficult it is to rinse offproducts such as soaps and shampoos. The truth is water (whether hard or soft) can be damaging to skin, causing eczema, redness and acne.

Metals like copper, iron and lead react with our skin and oxidise, creating increased free radicals responsible for the breakdown of elasticity and collagen. Even after towelling off, these metals can cause our skin’s natural oils to transform from liquid to wax. Meaning? It will clog the pores and result in acne.